Educating a Toddler to Grow into an 'English Gentleman' – Is It Worth the Investment?

Child education concept
The company behind the advert states that what looks like "luxury or peculiarity" is truly "deliberate investment in initial learning".

"A household residing in north London wants to find an exceptional and qualified educator to assist their smallest child on his first steps to turning into an English gentleman."

Looking at this advertisement, you might easily skip the term "initial stages" as just an expression.

However, it might be the crucial part of this unique employment listing, as it aims to hire a tutor for a one-year-old.

Numerous of submissions have already been submitted since the unidentified family advertised their call for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".

Over the last few weeks, the listing has gained interest in the press, with numerous questioning why?

Progressive Approach

A tutoring expert, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their hunt, explained that notwithstanding early skepticism, he considered the concept "visionary", and "advanced".

When he consulted the family, he noted they understood the unusual aspect of their demand, and how young their son is.

But, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural bias had by then set in".

What precisely does the family mean by "cultural bias"?

It's "everything", the expert answered. "How you eat, the way you speak".

He stated the older sibling had picked up "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family told the consultant they hoped to prevent the same situation to recur with their new baby.

The plan: To bring in a UK tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby right from the beginning.

Tutoring discussion
The education firm say the listing has initiated a wider discussion about how families regard education, privilege and the role of family background in learning.

Natural Absorption

"A great deal of the development at the beginning here is somewhat acquired indirectly," explained the expert.

It's via this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will adopt the English characteristics they want to cultivate.

Adam said the tutor needed to be somebody who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".

"The instructor simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, effortlessly," he said.

Money No Object

The family told him the chosen tutor should preferably also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in riding, skiing, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a diverse set of passions.

Furthermore though, he said the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a range of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".

In the family's perspective, assisting their son grow into a "British gentleman" will lead to success and create opportunities.

"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he comments.

Yet, in spite of all this instruction in "English culture", would the child absorb what is termed cultural bias from the international family he is raised by regardless?

"Certainly", said Adam. "The family know this might not succeed, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he explained.

Idealistic and Unrealistic

Several in the private teaching field who share similar concerns.

An education leader, chief executive of Blue Education, who also offer private tutors, wrote that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."

He wrote that he had relocated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the time of childhood, and had been educated understanding and practicing both cultures. He progressed to study at a prestigious UK institution.

Peter Cui portrait
The executive was the first individual originating from the People's Republic of China to be selected to the post of Financial Officer of the Cambridge Union Society.

"The notion that one individual can serve as a representation of English culture, someone who can in some way transfer the attributes of a English gentleman to a one-year-old child, seems to me naive and unfeasible," he wrote.

"From my perspective, engaging a typically British tutor from babyhood will not necessarily achieve the goal they hope for.

"I did not have that kind of mentor, and yet I have been lucky enough to live numerous of the situations they aspire for their son."

He added: "The reality is, self-identity cannot be imposed from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."

Purchasing UK Culture

Certainly, UK identity is something the CEO thinks can be educated – and commercialized.

"I believe the reality that the global community holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating

Jamie Booth
Jamie Booth

Evelyn is a tech journalist with over a decade of experience covering UK innovations and digital transformation across various sectors.